A blog about homebrewing and craft beer in South Africa

Brewers & Union and Arcobräu – Part two

A couple of months ago I wrote about Brewers & Union/Collective Sao Gabriel and the German brewery Arcobräu Gräfliches Brauhaus. The Bavarian brewery Arcobräu is the brewery behind the Brewers & Union beers. It has been kept a secret (more or less) until now. I want to be clear that it is nothing strange and odd about that. I respect the fact that Brewers & Union do not want to talk about their business deals in public. For me as a consumer it becomes a dilemma though. I care about ingredients, brewing methods and origin when it comes to beer (and food) and I want to know these things. I am not satisfied with “it is a good beer” because I want to know more.

When I looked through the Arcobräu range of beers and compared them with the Brewers and Union beers I found many similarities. In fact I found so many I just had to dig a little deeper. Later on I found a press release that confirmed what I was looking for.

Good to know when comparing beers
A “good to know” fact is that printed ABV (alcohol %) on beer labels does not have to be exact. In fact the deviation could be up to 0,5 %. A beer with 5,2 % on the label could be anything between 4,7 % – 5,7 % .
Another good thing to know is beer styles. A Zwicklbier for instance is often an unpasteurised and unfiltered lager.

What did I found?
The Brewer & Union beers is not all “their own” beers but rather a rebranding of Arcobräu beers. The Brewers & Union Unfiltered Lager is a rebranding of Arcobräu Zwicklbier. The same goes with Brewers & Union Dark Lager that is a rebranded unfiltered Arcobräu Schloss Dunkel. I am not going to make a long list. You could make your own comparisons.

What do I think?
I do not really care if companies rebrand beers from others breweries unless they pretend it is their own. Arcobräu makes really good beers and I am glad that you could find that type of quality beers in South Africa. I am not going to comment on business deals and marketing strategies. I hope that Brewers & Union starts to develop their own range of beer.